Baked Fish and Chips

Hope all of you are keeping warm in this polar vortex!  Houston has been warm one day, ice day the next. Story of Houstonian's lives...all we can do is just adapt daily and hope that one of those days will at least give us a good hair day!

A couple times of year I get intense cravings for fish and chips.  The beer battered fried goodness is perfect with a splash of malt vinegar, good tartar sauce, and a generous helping of chips.  My mouth waters even as I wrote that sentence. Although these fried fishies are crazy delicious, they are not so kind to my insides (or outsides).

Which brings me to this meal of BAKED fish and chips.  No deep frying, no smelly oil permeating through your home, and no guilt.  These fish are baked with a crispy panko coating served alongside some baked chips that are simply tossed in olive and sea salt. A side of crispy veggies and tangy sweet tartar sauce, you have a delicious and healthy meal that can't be found in some British pub!

I used cod, since that was what was on sale at the grocers and it was wild caught from the USofA.  The key to good fish and chips is a firm white fish, so use cod, haddock, halibut, flounder, or even tilapia.  Whatever you use, make sure it's fresh and preferably wild caught and not farm raised.

Baked Chips:

Potatoes tossed w/ olive oil, herbs, & sea salt

1 1/2 lbs small red potatoes

1 tbs. olive oil

fresh herbs (whatever strikes your fancy)

sea salt

Slice potatoes very thin and soak in warm water for 5 minutes.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Drain potatoes and dry THOROUGHLY!  This is important for crispy chips. Toss the potatoes with olive oil, herbs, and as much sea salt as you wish.  Spread the potatoes out in a single layer on a rimmed baking sheet and place on the top rack in the oven. Bake for 20 minutes.



As the chips are baking, work on your fish.

Seasoned cod fillets

Baked Panko Crusted Fish and Tartar Sauce:

1 1/2 lbs firm, white fish

2 cups panko breadcrumbs

1 1/2 cups flour

1 tbs chili powder

1 tbs ground black pepper

1 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp onion powder

1 tsp sea salt

2 eggs

sea salt

coarse black pepper

1/2 cup mayo with olive oil

2 sweet gherkins, chopped

1 tbs chopped dill

hot sauce

zest of one lemon

juice of 1/2 lemon

sea salt

coarse black pepper

Spread panko crumbs onto another rimmed baking sheet and pop into the oven on the bottom rack.  Toast for 5 minutes until golden brown.

Meanwhile, rinse and dry your fish and cut into appropriate sizes.  Season with salt and pepper on both sides of the fish.

Now let's prepare your assembly line!  Take out your panko crumbs and place into a deep dish.  Prepare the flour mixture by combining the flour with the chili powder, black pepper, garlic powder, and sea salt. Beat the eggs in a separate dish. Prepare a baking sheet with a layer of parchment paper and a spray of oil for your fish.

The order for the fish will be to cover in flour, dip in egg, cover in panko crumbs.  Place on prepared baking sheet.

BACK TO THE CHIPS:  Reduce oven heat to 350, flip the chips and place this baking sheet on the bottom rack.  Keep an eye on the chips and bake until they have browned and crisped up.

Place fish on the top rack and bake until the fish are cooked through, about 20 minutes.

As the fish bake, prepare your tartar sauce.  Combine the mayo with the chopped sweet gherkins, dill, a few splashes of hot sauce, lemon zest, and juice of half a lemon. Add salt and pepper to taste.  Stir until everything is contributed and place in fridge until ready to use.  Soooo much tastier than that bottle of mediocrity you find at the grocery store!

Tartar sauce

Take out the crispy fish and chips and serve with slices of lemon, tartar sauce, and some crisp vegetables.  ENJOY!!

Fried Apple Hand Pies

Happy National Pie Day friends!!! In celebration I bring you a fried hand pie recipe!

I LOVE pie. My favorite pie is apple.  It's comforting, warm, flaky, spiced, and perfect with a scoop of ice cream of course!  These hand pies remind me of the pies we used to ask my mom to buy from the grocery store that were packaged in wax paper and tasted the best when warmed up in the microwave for 30 seconds.  You know what I'm talking about right?  There was apple, cherry, chocolate, pineapple, etc.  I haven't had one of those probably since high school and now that I stay away from processed food as much as possible, I figured I can make my own version!

As mentioned in a previous post, I find making my own pie crust very intimidating and have never attempted, so naturally I thought I would maybe just go buy a pie crust and make these little pies for dessert.  But I left work, the temperature had dropped like 20 degrees and there was that super annoying misty rain and I just wanted to go home.  No stops.  So, finally, I ended up attempting pie crust from scratch, and for a first try, I think it went well!  Please don't let making pie crust be intimidating!  It was actually quite easy and I thought fried up well for this recipe.  If I can do it, you can do it.

Feel free to change up the filling as you wish!  As I said, apple is my personal favorite, but you can do cherry, peach, strawberry, whatever your heart desires!  I'm sure savory fillings would be great and handy for a lunch or breakfast on the go.

I hope that you try this recipe and it brings with it warm feelings of childhood.

Pie Crust:

3 cups all-purpose flour
3 tbs. sugar
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 cup butter, cold
2 eggs, beaten in separate bowls
1 cup buttermilk

Combine flour, sugar, and salt.  Cut butter into small pieces and add to the flour mixture.  Work the butter into the flour with your hands until the flour is coarse and resembles sand. Add 1 beaten egg and stir gently with a fork.  Add buttermilk and gently stir until combined and comes together into a soft dough.  Form into a ball and wrap in plastic wrap. Place in refrigerator for at least a hour.

As the pie crust sits, make the pie filling.

Apple Pie Filling: for two

1 apple, peeled and chopped
3 tbs. brown sugar
cinnamon
pinch of nutmeg
juice of 1/2 lemon
1/2 tsp. vanilla

In a small pot, over medium heat, toss together the apple chunks, brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and lemon juice.  Heat until the mixture boils and thickens.  Take off heat and add vanilla.

Hand Pie Assembly:

Beat the 2nd egg in a small bowl.  Take dough out of the refrigerator and pull off a 1/4 of the dough and place the rest back in the refrigerator, or freeze.  Roll out the dough on a floured surface into a thin rectangle. Take a pizza cutter or sharp knife to cut out a large rectangle and then cut the rectangle in half to make 2 thinner rectangles. Set aside the scraps so you are only left with the 2 rectangles.

Add a generous dollop of filling to the end of each rectangle leaving the edges free.  Brush on the egg around all 4 edges.  Fold over the top of each rectangle over the pie filling and to the opposite edge.  Gently press the edges down to seal the pies.  Dip a fork into some flour and press it along the edges of the pies to extra seal.

Place the pies in the refrigerator for about 15 min to set.

Heat enough oil in a pot to deep fry the pies.  Add a pinch of dough to the oil and if it immediately begins to sizzle and float to the top, the oil is ready.  Or wait until it reaches 350 degrees on a thermometer.  Carefully add one or both hand pies (depending on how much room there is in the pot) and cook until golden brown, 3-4 minutes, turning halfway.

Drain the pies on paper towels and sprinkle with lots of powdered sugar and ENJOY!

Baked Lemon Herb Chicken w/ Lemon Sauce

Um, so I was supposed to post this recipe up last week! I need to stop promising posts by a certain time. Sorry if you were looking out for this!  Ended up not having the free time I wanted.

It's that time of the year for Shia Muslims to observe the month of Muharram (the beginning of the new Islamic year), which unfortunately is a more somber observance for us as we reflect on the history and stories of that time, and life gets super busy!  Between work, cooking, errands, and making it to the mosque on time, I barely have had enough time to just sit these past 10 days. Just the other day, I came home, threw my purse on the kitchen table, opened the fridge and started cooking dinner because I literally had an hour before having to meet up my friend so we could drive from one side of the city to the other for a sermon at the mosque.  I didn't sit until I got in the car.  If you were wondering though, I whipped up my super fast citrus baked chicken fajitas.

This is another flavorful baked chicken dish that can be whipped up if you are ever in a rush and need to get something on the table to feed growling bellies.  And duh, it's healthy!

Lemon Herb Chicken w/ Lemon Sauce and Orange Veggies (sweet potatoes & carrots)

Baked Lemon Herb Chicken w/ Lemon Sauce:

4 chicken breast cutlets
1 lemon, zested and juiced (reserve the juice separately)
2-3 sprigs fresh thyme, leaves off
1 sprig rosemary, finely chopped
1 tsp. red pepper flakes (more or less)
sea salt
black pepper
olive oil
1 tbs. butter
1 tbs. minced garlic
1 cup chicken or vegetable stock
1/2 tbs. corn starch
1 tsp Worcestershire
1 chicken or vegetable bouillon cube
fresh parsley, chopped, or lemon slices, for garnish

For the chicken, preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Spray a baking dish with cooking spray and lay down chicken breasts.  Brush olive oil on both sides of the chicken breasts.  In a small bowl, combine the zest, thyme leaves, rosemary, red pepper flakes, sea salt, and black pepper. Generously sprinkle both sides of the chicken breasts with the seasoning.

Bake chicken in the oven for about 20 minutes.  They'll cook quickly since they are thinner slices of the breast.  Always check the thickest cutlet for done-ness.  Remove the baking dish from the oven, and let the chicken rest as you make the sauce.

Now on to the SAUCE.  In a medium saucepan over medium heat, melt butter and add garlic.  Cook until garlic is fragrant being careful not to burn the garlic.

Add 1/2 cup of the stock to the pan, and stir cornstarch in to the remaining half of the stock, and then pour that in as well.  Add the Worcestershire, reserved lemon juice, and bouillon cube to the sauce and cook for about 5 minutes until the sauce has thickness.  Add salt and pepper to your liking.

Transfer the sauce to your blender/bullet and blend the sauce until smooth.

Serve the sauce over the chicken, sprinkle with fresh parsley or top with a lemon slice, and enjoy!!

Spicy Turkey Chili and Jalapeno & Cheddar Sweet Potato Hashbrowns

Hey readers, it's been a bit since my last post.  Things are well in life, no complaints.

It's been a crazy few weeks with birthday celebrations, for the young and older, and as much as I adore birthdays, I am birthay'd out!  No more stuffing balloons in my little car, baking cakes, or fishing for a candle in my kitchen drawers.  I need a mini break.  But don't worry friends, if I love you so much, you will still get a birthday cake :)

A little update on the clean eating/healthy lifestyle, judging from my first progress picture to the one I took 4 weeks later, there is a MAJOR difference in my pooch.  So yay for that!!  My shirts fit a lot better with almost nothing sticking out, so that was a major win. My face looks a little thinner and I feel great!

Although I did not work out at all this past week, I did fine with food, a little more cheating on the weekend, but stayed pretty much in line during the week. It's hard to work out when all you're craving is chocolate and salt and having so many emotions... #girlprobs.  It's back to work this week though with some high intensity interval workouts (HIIT), which will do a number on your legs.  I couldn't walk normally for 2 days.  It was one of those "it hurts so good" feelings, so at least I know I did the exercises correctly and really pushed myself. These are great workouts that can easily fit into a busy schedule and can definitely be done at home. Just Google HIIT workouts, and you'll come across a bunch of different workouts.  So much more efficient than just being on the elliptical for an hour watching Netflix.

The weather is getting cooler day by day, which is great. I love fall and spring, those in between seasons have the best weather.  It's perfect for comfort food and nights by the fire pit, which by the way, I re-painted and am super excited about it.  Those things rust quickly, but with a little work, I have revived the pit.  You know what else is great when the weather gets cooler? Cuddling. And lots of it!  I view comfort food as cuddling for the stomach.

The following recipe is just something I threw together in my cast iron pot while the hubs was away on a work trip.  It's a clean, healthy meal that makes enough to last the whole week for lunches and leftovers and best of all, it's comfort food! I also made some sweet potato hashbrowns which were super easy to whip up to eat along with chili.

Spicy Turkey Chili:

2 tbs. olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
1 jalapeno, diced (I kept the seeds for spiciness)
1 bell pepper, seeded, diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 pound ground turkey
2 tbs. cocoa powder
chili powder
cayenne powder
red chili flakes
ground cumin
sea salt
black pepper
2 cans fire roasted diced tomatoes
1 can red kidney beans (or any beans), drained
hot sauce

Heat olive oil in a a large pot or cast iron pot on medium. Add onion, jalapenos, bell peppers, and garlic and cook until the vegetables have softened and the garlic is fragrant.

Add turkey and cook until no longer pink.  Add all of the spices to your liking and cook for a few minutes with the meat and veggies.

Add the canned tomatoes, beans, beer, and as much hot sauce as you like.  Bring everything to a boil and reduce heat to low.  Simmer, partially covered, for 45 min-1 hour.  Add more spices after tasting.

Top with shredded cheddar, sour cream, avocado, whatever your heart desires!  I did mine simply with shredded cheddar and a dollop low fat sour cream, and some more hot sauce :)

Jalapeno & Cheddar Sweet Potato Hashbrowns:

2 large sweet potatoes, peeled, shredded
1 jalapeno, seeded, diced
1/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese
chili powder
garlic powder
salt
pepper
2 tbs. wheat flour

Combine shredded sweet potatoes, jalapenos, cheese, spices, and flour, until well incorporated.  Spray a medium pan with cooking spray.  Form the sweet potato mixture into small patties and fry 3 minutes on each side until golden brown.  Serve on top of chili.

Enjoy this dish and enjoy the weather!

Almond Butter Dark Chocolate Chunk Cookies

So chocolate chip cookies are my favorite cookie, in particular with lots of dark chocolate, pecans or walnuts, and made with salted butter with a sprinkle of sea salt on top. I love salt. I love dark chocolate.  I love butter.

With the whole clean eating thing, I can't exactly have my normal choco chip that I love, or these, since I can't yet control myself and would probably eat the entire batch in bed, falling asleep to chocolate-y, chewy goodness and a stomach ache. So I googled "clean" desserts and I ran across recipes for cookies that use nut butters, natural sugar, and no flour or butter. Um, yes. Please. No need to search for any other desserts because I could just make variation after variation of these cookies and be a happy and satisfied lady.  I first experimented with baking peanut butter cookies using this formula, with a couple of comfort blanket tweeks, like using half white sugar and half brown and honey roasted peanut butter, and my peanut butter hating hubs LOVED them, as did my coworkers.

Since I had company last night, I made a dark chocolate clean version with almond butter and they were soooo yummy.  They are definitely up there with my salted butter ones.  And to think a cookie made without butter and flour would make it to the top of my cookie list!  We polished off an entire batch.  That's how awesome these cookies were, yeah, awe-inspiring delicious.  Even though these cookies are not unhealthy, they still contain sugar, which in the long run...well, you know. But enjoy! Bake these once in a while when you can't be cheating and a want a better alternative.  They are worth it and a great substitute. Or make them for a gluten-free or food sensitive friends! I promise, they'll shed a tear of joy.

The cookie batter will look oily because of the almond butter, but once they come out of the oven and are slightly cooled, they are chewy, have a subtle hint of almonds, and are divinely chocolate-y.  Please try them and let me know what you think!  Next time I make the peanut butter cookies, I will post those up as well!

Almond Butter Dark Chocolate Chunk Cookies:

1 cup creamy almond butter
2/3 cup sucanat (dehydrated cane sugar), or raw sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp sea salt
4 oz. dark chocolate bar, beaten into chunks (70% cocoa or more)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Mix almond butter with the sucanat until combined.  Add the egg, vanilla, baking soda, and sea salt.  Mix well.  Stir in the chocolate chunks.  Again, the batter will look oily and look as if it's going to fall apart, but believe in your cookies.  They will turn out properly!

Drop by the tablespoon onto a parchment lined baking sheet and bake 10-12 minutes.  Let them cool for a bit on the baking sheet until they've set up.  And then nom, nom, nom!

Enjoy!

Cajun Mahi Mahi with Smashed Jalapeno and Garlic Sweet Potatoes

I've started a clean eating challenge with my sister's help where I eat only whole, non-processed food, with no cheating for a few weeks.  This coupled with exercise should help me shed a few pounds and/or inches in a healthy way and hopefully keep it off!  Then eventually in a few weeks, I can add in a cheat day here and there, not everyday or every other day, but maybe once a week.

It's day 8 and I'm feeling pretty great and I'm not really craving as much as I used to.  It hasn't been too difficult keeping up with the healthy eating habits, but it has been a challenge with the willpower and fitting in my workouts. What's been helpful is putting together a meal plan for the week and hitting the gym first thing in the morning before work.  On Sunday we have been getting groceries and then based on what we've purchased, I put together meals for the week.  This includes, breakfast, lunch, dinner, and two snacks. I followed last week's carefully, and this week it's already become a habit.  We go to bed early most of the time, but I make it a clear point now to avoid any late nights so I can wake up in time for the gym.  Gotta make those sacrifices. I have definitely had a few "pat myself on the back" moments, even if they were small, like taking off that extra slice of thin cheese off my sandwich, or not ordering a calorie laden drink, and avoiding even a bite of pizza while watching the Texans lose.  If I'm gonna have those things, I'm going to make them count by eating the cheesiest pizza and having the coldest and tastiest drink I can and enjoy them fully on my cheat day.  But until I feel like I can handle a cheat and not fall off the wagon, I have to power through and make this a lifestyle.  The hubs and my sister are great motivators and keep me going and are the only ones I can show my progress pics to.  Because frankly, they are awkward half naked selfies.

Our dinners for the most part have not included any bread or rice, maybe the occasional whole wheat or corn tortilla, but mainly it's a meat and two veggies.  Hubs and I love our veggies.

I made cajun seasoned mahi mahi the other night and served it on top of jalapeno and garlic smashed sweet potatoes and along side were our favorite roasted green beans.  It was my first time cooking mahi and mahi and I'm not sure we are huge fans.  It's too "meaty" for our liking when it comes to fish.  We like the flakiness of salmon much better.  The taste was good and we finished our meals, but I think we will lay off the purchase of more mahi mahi for a while.

The sweet potatoes.  Yum.  I boiled the sweet potatoes with jalapeno and garlic cloves and mashed it all together into a merry union of creamy delicious-ness.  You do not need any butter or cream or sour cream or milk or any other dairy in these potatoes to make them creamy!  However, any and all of those things in my sweet potatoes, or yours, would be amazing.

Cajun Mahi Mahi:

2 filets of Mahi Mahi fish
Sea Salt
Black Pepper
Cajun Seasoning (your favorite, with no salt added)
Canola Cooking Spray

Season the filets with salt, pepper, and cajun seasoning on both sides.  Heat a medium skillet to about medium to medium high and spray with cooking oil.  Cook the filets on both sides, for about 5 minutes on each side, depending on thickness.  You want the fish to cook to an opaque white.  Don't overcook it! Remember, it's fish.

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Smashed Jalapeno Garlic Sweet Potatoes:

2 medium sweet potatoes, peeled, diced into same size chunks
1 jalapeno, de-seeded and de-veined to your heat level, chunked
3 cloves garlic, peeled
Sea Salt
Black Pepper

Boil the potatoes with the jalapeno and garlic cloves until potatoes are fork tender.  Drain, reserving just a tiny bit of water in the pot.  Smash up the potatoes with the cloves and jalapeno inside, add salt and pepper to taste.  If you did not leave enough liquid in the pot to get a good consistency, add some broth, or other liquid.  I had left just enough to get them to be the creamy that we liked.

Enjoy!

The different looks of appetizing in insta form.

Happy 2nd Blogiversary!

Happy birthday to you....
Happy birthday to you....
Happy birthday dear liveloveatrepeat...
Happy birthday to youuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu

Two years and almost 40 posts later, life has changed quite a bit, with some good and some bad, but always for the better.  I hope that as I come to my third year of this blog, that I have posted much more often than I have not, and have inspired another person to get in the kitchen and cook with love, and find the happiness in it that I do.

A special thank you to everyone who takes the time to read through my ramblings that are made special with my inept writing skills and run on sentences, and to those of you who actually make the recipes I post.  I get such happy feelings inside when someone tells me that they actually made something I posted!  I hope that feeling never goes away nor the people who make this blog worth it.

I just want to say that in the taking of the celebratory mini birthday cake photo, I singed off some of my precious hair as I leaned over the candle, like an idiot, to move something out of the shot.  I went to bed with the smell of burned hair and cake. Most importantly though, no cake was harmed in the taking of this picture. Again, just my hair.

Love, Irene.